grolby

Have you ever used v-brakes? It's difficult to take comments like this very seriously. Let's extend it: I can stop hard enough with v-brakes to do an endo. Therefore, hydraulic disc brakes couldn't possibly offer any improvement in stopping power. Does that sound reasonable to you?

The difference is the hand force required at the lever and degree of modulation over braking force. In both of these categories, linear pull brakes are not just somewhat but entirely and utterly superior to traditional cantilever brakes. V-brakes give powerful braking action with a lighter touch than cantis, which in combination with the stiff brake arms and single cable make for superior control over the amount of braking force.

I can do an endo with centerpull caliper brakes, too. Does that make me foolish for wanting something with better performance? I don't think so. Those brakes require a painful amount of lever force if you want that level of stopping power, and that along with the spaghetti noodle caliper arms make it difficult to control the endo when you get there.

As for ease of set-up, modern cantis that take v-brake pads have eliminated this problem, but there is no doubt that smooth-post cantis are perhaps the second-most frustrating brake to adjust, ever. Only the Mafac centerpulls are worse. With practice it becomes a lot easier, yes, but any moron can correctly adjust v-brakes the first time out.

I've used both cantis and v-brakes pretty extensively, and there is really no reason to believe that they are equivalent. Don't get me wrong, cantilever brakes are perfectly good and plenty powerful, but v-brakes are better. There isn't any getting around that.